Abstract Legal Drinking Age - Essay Example

There is a growing body of research on the issue of minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) and compelling arguments are tried to be put forward by both proponents and opponents of lowering MLDA. Though the legal drinking age varies from country to country but it is stressed by MLDA in the USA that as many as possible under 21 people should be restricted to purchase alcohol openly as 18 year olds do not happen to be mature enough to make proper decisions amidst situations when things may get wayward due to alcoholic influence.

The age 21 law is the reason why fewer car accidents due to alcoholic influence occur in America as compared to the European world. While it is claimed that MLDA should not be set at 18 because such action could greatly aggravate the harmful consequences for the society, the opponents of the age 21 law argue that a higher MLDA is only empty mockery because not only it is not associated with a decreased number of highway care accidents and reckless endangerment incidents involving the youth, but also it encourages the immature youngsters to pursue wrong paths to do exactly what they are stopped from by the law.

This essay attempts at reviewing what the literature has to say on the issue of lowering MLDA as a way of evaluating if the arguments in favor of lowering it actually happen to be as compelling and credible as those against it. It also aims at contemplating basic history related to MLDA as a way of illuminating exactly when and why this issue started to be taken seriously at the official level.